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Gen. JOHN WATTS DePEYSTER. 



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ATLANTIC PUBLISHING CO., 



NEW YORK. 



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MA.JOR-GENERAL 

ii 

i! 

GEORGE H. THOMAS. 

'i 
THE ANNUAL ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE \ 

NEW YORK HISTOKICAL SOCIETY, \ 

Ij 

TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 5. 1875, I 



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MAJ. GEN. GEORGE 11. THOMAS. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New York His- 
torical Society : It will be the speaker's earnest endeavor this 
evening to present a word-portrait of a perfect American. He 
was the man who, had he lived, the people, despite himself, would 
have forced to accept the highest office in their gift — Major Gen- 
eral GEOEGE.H. THOMAS. To him are pertinent the words 
of "a chief among, the captains," and likewise the prophet and 
sweet Psalmist of Israel : " Mark the perfect man and behold the 
upright !" 

From his own experience David could appreciate such a char- 
acter and the perils which its own excellence evokes, for had he 
not seen an exemplary patriot and soldier put out of the way 
from passion and interest, and two generals of the loyal stamp 
of Thomas removed from the path of a bold and ambitious rival.'' 
The very admiration excited by a perfect carriage and an upright 
mind excites the jealousy of lesser men. The masses are no more 
capable of comprehending perfect integrity and incorruptible 
honesty than they are of accepting truth whose conception is 
limited by the capacity of each individual. Accordingly, it was 
not until Thomas had ceased to be an object of fear to the weak 
and the bad, and of jealousy to the interested, that his supreme 
merit was universally conceded. Looking back to him now, does 
it not seem as if one ray was refracted from the great fountain o 
Truth, to illuminate the soul of this father of his soldiers, that in 



him might be perceptible to men the magnificent sublimity of 
simple but perfect rectitude in a mortal? To use the language of 
Shakspeare, akin to inspiration, Thomas was one of that small 
band of whom Hamlet spoke as " Blessed are those whose blood 
and judgment are so well co-mingled that they are not a pipe for 
Fortune's finger to sound what stop she please." 

Although Virginia, -'mother of Presidents," is the cradle of so 
many lieroes and statesmen — among these, of Madison and of 
Monroe, of Taylor, of Harrison and of Scott, of Clay, and of the 
"sage of Monticcllo," and although thereon was born and bred 
he who was called " the father of his country," neither the soil nor 
the peculiar race of " Old Dominion," has produced a greater son 
than the hero of tliis address. ' It is very doubtful if, taking all 
things into consideratitm, Virginia can boast in George Wash- 
ington, a more exemplary citizen than the modest or diffident and 
unselfish martyr to duty, who won the only immediately decisive 
battles of the great American Conflict. 

All the virtues and general abilities ascribed to the mythical 
Virginian of a century since, all the virtues and military excellence 
credited to the idol of Southern worship in the present generation, 
all these belonged, in reality, in a greater degree to the man whom 
the masses do not seem to have been able to appreciate, on account 
of the very simplicity which was his peculiar characteristic. 

He has no parallel, except Epaminondas, " the greatest of the 
(ancient) Greeks," and Gustarus Adolphus, " the foremost man 
of all this modern world." Like the grand Swede, he was one 
who " was never dismayed, nor puzzled, from early manhood 'till 
the hour of his death." And why ? Because his whole entity, 
moral, mental, and physical, could be likened to nothing so well 
as to a cube, a body representing mathematical, perfection in the 
entire eij^uality of all its parts. This figure conveys the thorough 
solidity, exact poise, nice adjustment and perfect distribution of 
every characteristic necessary to complete one of " the Godlike 
men " on whom common mortals build their trust. 

Nor was the raolto — ^'■j.l^qualis semper eterectua," " always up- 
right and ever consistent " — assigned to Gustavus, " the Lion of 
the European North,' in the seventeenth century, any more appli- 
cable to him than to Thomas, the " Lion of the Loyal North," in 
the present epoch. 

Like Epaminonda.s, and like Gustavus, whom he resembled in 
every virtue and in every peculiar characteristic, he was taken 
away because he was too good to be left, and because, if our 



people could have lifted up their souls to conceive his — if their 
minds could only have comprehended him as he was, it is but con- 
sequent to believe that they would have neglected all other idols, 
and made him the object of their devoted admiration. 

While considering the parallel between Gustavus and Thomas, 
it is of interest to observe that it holds good, not only as regards 
all the virtues of a citizen, and all the qualities of a soldier, but 
likewise as to their physical developments and distinguishing traits. 
Both were as remarkable for the manly massiveness of their heads 
and figures, as for thoir indomitable intrepidity, energy, common 
sense and forbearance. Both were alike wonderful in their per- 
sonal influence, and, in exemplification of this, it is stated by an 
eye-witness, himself a distinguished major-general, that at the 
banquet in the Chamber of Commerce, after the grand meeting 
of officers and generals at Cliicago, in 1868, when the uproar was 
at its height, and neither the endeavors of Grant nor of Sherman 
to make themselves heard had any effect to still the commotion, 
then Thomas arose, and there was perfect silence and attention ; 
and he spoke his few, calm, earnest words to an audience which 
listened to him with a demeanor and respect that can scarcely be 
expressed by any other word than veneration. 

As Everett remarked in his oft-repeated oration in regard to 
his ideal Washington, Thomas was one of those pre-eminent 
individuals who lifted themselves like imperishable monuments of 
exemplary manhood, not through the prominence of any one 
grand and attractive characteristic, but by the perfect balance of 
all his qualities, in the exhibition of superlative common sense. 
This, from the rarity of its actual possession, excites astonishment, 
— in very truth constitutes what the world, in its hollow and super- 
ficial judgment, considers genius, — genius which, in its abstract 
signification, is a direct interposition of the Deity, through an in- 
dividual, in and upon the affairs of men. 

Following out this train of thought, it is impossible not to 
recognize in Thomas the greatest and best man, in his combi- 
nation of excellencies, our institutions have developed. The 
speaker felt it and said it while Thomas was living; he feels 
it, he sees it, he must express it now that his remains, without 
a National monument, sleep beneath the soil preserved by his 
virtues and genius. Yes ! The genius of Thomas preserved ! 
for Thomas not only possessed rare genius, but his genius was 
combined with equally remarkable talents. — Genius creates, 
talents apply powers or forces already existing. Genius is the 



immediate inspiration of the Deity. Like original light, it bursts 
forth responsive to the demand of the moment or the command 
of necessity. It is born, full grown, equipped, perfect, like 
Minerva from the brain of Jupiter. It knows no increment, it 
bridges the gulf which arrests talent. Talent, often of very 
slow development, is the child of study, experience and applica- 
tion. To cite two great examples of these gifts, Conde had 
genius, Turrenne, his great rival, had talent. Genius is the light- 
ning flash of inherent common sense, evoked by the collision of 
the moment, and Thomas demonstrated that he possessed Conde's 
genius when he won his first battle at Mill Spring, and Turenne's 
talent when he achieved the greatest triumph of our war at Nash- 
ville, which decided the fate of the Nation; Nashville, the pivot 
on which the fortunes of the great American Conflict turned : 
Nashville, the great decisive battle which obliterated an army; 
Nashville, which made the capitulation of Appomatox Court 
House a possibility. Had Hood been the victor under the walls of 
the capital of Tennessee, the war must have begun anew and our 
over-burthened people, like the martyrs of Revelation, would even 
now be crying " How long." Thomas has been accused of being 
slow ; but, like tlie mills of fate, though he ground slowly, he 
ground exceedingly strong and surpassingly sure'. He was the 
■" Thought," "// Pcnsiero," of every army with which he served, 
and, whether second or first in command, "a strong tow;?r," " einer 
feste hurg," on Avhich men leaned, even as did the Army of the 
Cumberland in the gloomy valley of the " River of Death." 

As to the importance of the triumph achieved by Thomas at 
Nashville, one fact will have to suffice in the restricted time ac- 
corded : A prominent and observing officer who was in command 
of a district at the far south at the time, stated that there were 
sixty thousand Southern soldiers who were awaiting the result of 
Hood's operations in Tennessee, to determine their future action. 
They had their muskets and equipments ready to take the field 
again, if Hood was victorious. When the news of his annihila- 
tion reached them, they put away their arms and equijjments and 
recognized the situation, for they felt the game was up. Nor is this 
the only testimony to this effect. It was corroborated by a Con- 
federate officer in a conversation with one of our highest and best. 

Like the w-onderful Gioroione, of whom Titian was at once the 
pupil and rival, the first true painter of the New Birth of the 
most resplendent school of coloring, Thomas only exists in the 
minds of the majority of his countrymen as a GREAT NAME, 



although he is the greatest this country can boast, not excepting 
even the ideal one. Of Thomas it may truly be said as of Grior- 
gione, " the inheritor of unfulfilled renown/' " the intrepid work- 
er," that although criticism has reduced the number of his easel 
pictures (works of his own hand) to half a dozen, so even the great 
undeniable individual achievements of our best general may be 
counted upon the fingers of one hand, while it is utterly impossi- 
ble to calculate the many grand results which he infiuenced, the 
many doubtful collisions which his inspirations converted into 
assured successes. And even as the master hand of Griorgione is 
scarcely perceptible in his once resplendent frescoes, destroyed by 
1 he damp and exhalations of the Lagunes, even so the effect of 
the presence, inflitence and judgment of Thomas on many momen- 
tous fields, are lost in a great measure through the misconception, 
the obtuseness, the hollowness of popular judgment in regard to 
the real, the sublime. 

To Thomas belongs the Sunday " annihilating " victory of Mill 
Spring, the first success of any consequence beyond the Appal- 
achians, the dawn of hope west of the great eastern battle-ground 
of Virginia; the other Sunday success, fought on the " Eiver of 
Death," which gave to him the title of the "Rockof Chickamauga;" 
the tenacious defense of the key to the portal and store-houses of the 
Confederacy, Chattanooga, in which he made good his promise — 
" Have no fear; we will hold the town till we starve!" the car- 
rying of Mission, or Missionaries Ridge, which constituted the 
grand feature of the second battle of Chattanooga, proper, and the 
supreme triumph at Nashville, without a parallel on our continent, 
the only battle of the war, except the minor contest of Mill Spring, 
which resulted in the obliteration of an opposing army. 

The members of every profession, as a body — particularly mili- 
tary officers — may be compared to a pyramid. The great mass 
compose the base and lower tiers, while those possessing superior 
qualifications (gradually decreasing in numbers, as they exhibit a 
higher scale of capacity), constitute the upper ranges, lessening as 
they taper upwards, to terminate in the crowning apex of a single 
pre-eminent individual. Of the pyramids whose living stones are, 
and were, the generals who exercised coramands-in-chief of grand 
armies, or of bodies of troops worthy of the title of armies, during 
the great American Conflict, the crowning position (viewing him 
from^very stand-point) must, undoubtedly, be assigned to Thomas. 

He lived up to the spirit of Wellington's remark : *' We can all 
of us go straight forward and do our duty." The word " glory," 



6 

which was the war-cry of Napoleon, is scaicely to be found men- 
tioned in any private or public paper of the " Iron Duke." His 
was the watchword of Thomas, " Duty ! " "A man may live a 
true and honest life," said a grand old English gentleman of the 
manly, gallant times of Queen Elizabeth, "however sore his heart 
may be, and G-od Almighty makes it up to him, if he faces it 
out manfully." Thus, when asked by one of his comrades what 
he would do if Virginia seceded, he at once replied, " I will help 
to whip her back again ! " Subsequently, as the war progressed, 
he remarked, " My duty was clear from the beginning." " Honor 
or glory," exclaims the old English moralist, " lives for earth, 
duty for heaven. One has the praise of men — the other of God," 
How few remember this ? Thomas did ! 

" He that walks it " — tlie paHi of iluti' — " only tliirsting 

For the nght, and learns to deaden 

Love of self, before his jouincy closes, 

He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting 

Into glossy pui'ples, which oiitreddcn 

All voluptuous garden roses. 

Not once or twice in this" our nation's "story, 

The path of duty was the way to glory : 

He, that ever following her commands, 

On with toil of heart and kneej* and hands, 

Through the long gorge to the far light has won 

His path upward, and prevailed. 

Shall find the toi>pliug crags of Duty scaled 

Are close upon tlie sliining table lauds 

Tjd which our Ood liini.self is moon and sun." 

Alas ! for Thomas, '' the stubborn thistle," alluded to by the 
poet laureate, did not blossom for him until the fervor of his 
patriotism and the effulgence of his glory burst it open into silken 
bloom. Such thistles, however, continued to beset his path 
throughout life. Those who had the power planted these " stub- 
born thistles " thickly along his " u^jward way." The light of 
his character and the warmth of his heart dignified these weeds 
of envy and converted them into voluptuous garden roses. Yes, 
and twined them with the laurels he had grown into anadems for 
himself, and into coronals for the adorning of the eagles that sm*- 
mounted the staves of our victorious banners. This extraor- 
dinary language may seem to adopt the superlatives of one of the 
panegyrics of the poets of the Lower Empire. Nevertheless, it is 
no more than sober fact in the case of Thomas. As he began his 
career, even so he ended it. No great vice deformed him, no 
minor vice staiued him. At home, a faithful, loving husband, 



abroad, a reliable, valorous and efficient citizen, he discharged 
with equal fidelity every duty of the head of a house, of the 
general of an army, and of the chief of a department. He wore 
H window in his breast through which every one could scrutinize 
the secret workings of his soul. Envy, hatred, and uncharitable- 
ni'ss attempted in vain to present a charge which would bear a 
moment's critical investigation. Whoever attempted the invidi- 
ous task was compelled to acquiesce with the poet : 

" I've scanu'd the actions of his daily life, 

With all the iudustrious malice of a foe, 

And nothing meets uiy eye but deeds of honor !" 

Not a word spoken on this occasion but is susceptible of exact 
and indisputable proof. As was remarked of him by one of our 
most brilliant corps commanders — one who held a position next 
to command-in-chief at a great crisis — the crisis according to 
general opinion : " When you have spoken all you can in praise 
of Thomas, you have told all that is to be said ; there is nothing 
to be said on the other side — no dispraise." " The ablest soldier 
this country ever produced," are the words of a letter from the 
hero of " the battle above the clouds," and " victor of Lookout 
Mountain." " Washington was his superior in nothing," wrote 
one who knew Thomas intimately, and followed his fortunes in 
order to be able to study him more closely, " while as a general 
he was greatly inferior." " Those who did not know General 
Thomas," is the recent remark of one of our ablest and best — 
Senator and Vice-President Foster of Connecticut — " might think 
that your admiration of him was too intense, and your estimate 
of him too high. I do not, and those who knew him best, I am 
sure, will agree with me. He deserves all that you have so well 
said in his praise." 

" If the surprises of Trenton " — for America what Ther- 
mopylae was for Grreece, — "and the attempt on Princeton," ac- 
cording to the celebrated Prussian expert, von Bulow, " were 
sufficient to elevate Washington to the Temple of Immortality," 
what would he, this greater tactician than Jomini, have written 
of our Thomas it he had enjoyed an opportunity to discuss his 
achievements, particularly his foresight and conduct at Mill 
Spring, his tenacity at Chickamauga, his fortitude and judgment 
at Chattanooga, and his plan and execution at Nashville. 

Thomas won every victory against odds, either in numbers, in 
force, or in advantages. Others, when victorious, swarmed out 



opposition with life, or drowned it out in blood, or triumphed with 
every odds and circumstance in their favor. Examine the facts, 
study out the details, and weigh every movement with the severest 
scrutiny, Thomas need not fear the judgment. Again, tbere is 
good reason to believe if his advice had been followed, and had the 
army marched, as he indicated, after Perryville, in October, 18G2, 
in the direction of Danville (eastj, instead of towards Harrodsburg 
(north), there would have been an end of Bragg then and there. 
Indeed, there is reason to believe that if Thomas had been in chief 
command, we would not have had to fight the same rebel army 
which escaped from Chaplin's Hills through Cumberland Gap, 
and to wrest victory from the jaws of death, in a series of conflicts 
lasting througliout two entire years. All this would have been 
saved if operations had been carried on witli a will akin to his 
own patriotic and military determination. Washington again and 
again was only saved from utter ruin by the inexcusable blunders 
of his adversaries ; Thomas was not only able to save himself, but 
to save every other superior, as well as the nation, in many crises 
of our arms. 

Compare the two Virginians who will stand furtli the most ])ro- 
minent in the future histories of the war — Lee, the arch-rebel, and 
Thomas, the " incorruptible " ])atriot. Lee needed a Stonewall 
Jackson to bear him up, and bear him along on the latter's en- 
thusiastic and capable energy, through the succeeding campaigns, 
in which foreign adulation and home imitation hailed him as a 
consummate, victorious general. Thomas needed no Jackson, nor 
Hill, nor Longstreet, nor Stuart, to hold up his hands in the day 
of battle. Alone he could sustain the weight of his own burthen; 
yes, and hold up the arm of any other who relied upon him in the 
hour of trial. What Halleck found him, Buell, Rosecrans, Grant, 
Sherman, in succession, found bim; always the same — greater only 
because the occasion was greater — always equal to every occasion 
— as great at Stone River and at Chickamauga, in command of 
the centre or of one wing of the army, as at Mill Spring and Chat- 
tanooga, and at Nashville, in command of an entire independent 
army. 

Men judge of greatness by success, which Albert Sydney John- 
son, the ablest of the Confederate generals, admitted " is a hard 
rule, but a just one." If this audience will recollect that Thomas 
nevtr failed; tliat whether as a subordinate, as a second in com- 
mand; as an "Adlatus" or "Altei'-ego," or as a Commander-in- 
Chief, he never failed, what estimate must the American people 



put upon such a man ? Every other general during the war, at 
one time or another, met with reverses or failures. Criticism can 
debit no failure to Thomas; envy no reverse. What does this 
prove ? What else but that he was a God-chosen instrument, 
and, as such, the grand figure of the war! 

Now let us pass on to another consideration. Let us investigate 
the learning of Thomas. It is the general impression in regard to 
him that he was a first-class soldier^ — a practical, but not a highly 
educated man. Never was thei'e a more mistaken idea. Colonel 
Stone, for years attached to his staff, said he was astonished at 
the vast amount of scientific information possessed by his chief. 
Having on one occasion to shift his trains in consequence of a 
heavy cannonade, which dropped its balls around his head-quar- 
ters near New Hope Church, and seeing that this movement 
made his troops a little nervous, he declared he would never do so 
again whatever the consequences might be to himself As soon a 
he was settled down once more, he began to speak on the art of 
castrametation, and said that the world had never improved upon 
the camping arrangements of Moses. 

Having considered this subject in the amplest manner from that 
time down to the present day, his conversation then turned upon 
•religion — Thomas was a very religious man, and a member of the 
Episcopal Church — and Stone says that he never was more sur- 
prised than at this discovery of the enormous amount of reading 
that Thomas must have accomplished, and at his wonderful pow- 
ers of illustration. 

And here let us note a singular fact in connection with his 
peculiar scientific attainments. These were deep and comprehen- 
sive beyond belief His study of natural history evinced the 
closest observation. . Thomas transmitted to the Smithsonian In- 
stitute a variety of the Bat from the neighborhood of Fort Yuma, 
on the Gila river, the like of which has never been discovered in 
any other part of the world. Thus the great mind which could 
rise to the loftiest heights of command and administration, 
could descend to the study of natural objects with equal facility, 
realizing the exquisite lines of Pollock in his "Course of Time:" — 

" Others, though great, 
Beneath their argumeut seemed struggling yrhiles ; 
He fi'om al)ove descending stooped to touch 

The loftiest thought. 

« # * # # 

Then turned, and with the grasshopper, who sung 
His evening song beneath his feet, conversed." 



10 

And now, before proceeding to other jjhases of this subject, con- 
sider the independent course pursued by Thomas. Wlien others 
were accepting houses and donations and benefactions, Thomas 
refused every proffered gift ; and would not even allow the mem- 
bers of his staff to present him a tea-service, or offer it to his wife. 
Nor would that wife, worthy helpmate of such a husband, accept, 
after he was dead, the fortune he had refused while still living. 
Even the brevets of lieutenant-general and of general were declin- 
ed, in a manly letter to Senator Wade. Entitled to the real 
rank, he would not accept the nominal title. 

And when the reborn rebel sentiment in the Tennessee Lesis- 
lature led this body to disgrace themselves in regard to his por- 
trait, which their loyal predecessors had procured and placed in a 
position of honor in the capitol, he wrote to them to send him 
the picture, which was now out of place in the chamber of such a 
body, and that he, from his limited means, would restore to a 
disloyal territory what a loyal administration had expended for 
the likeness of the man who had preserved Tennessee to the Union, 
and the nation itself under the fortifications of Nashville. Ira- 
mortal powers ! what self-negation and manly independence 
characterized his career throughout. The mythical i)atrioti8m 
of a Cato, or of a Cincinnatus, or a Regulus, sinks into insignifi- 
cance before such real, consistent conduct as that of Thomas. 
Like a Sun in the Heaven, he moved on in the majesty of his 
glorious oneness, while the moons were revolving in their boiTowed 
or contributed light. 

Not a dollar that he drew or received had any odor but that of 
honest guerdon for services rendered, and obedient to the precept 
of the inspired ])rophet, he did " violence to no man, and was 
content with his wages." Like St. Paul, he was beholden to no 
man, laboiing for his subsistence, while the salvation of many 
])eople was due to his integrity. 

The writer enjoyed a veiy 2)eculiar connection with Thomas. 
Common friendship kejjt alive the intense feelings of admiration, 
appreciation and respect awakened by the study of his achieve- 
ments. Finally, personal intercourse of the most confidential 
character developed these sentiments into something akin to Cel- 
tic hero-worship. A veneration similar to this was felt by every 
individual capable of appreciating true manhood who came in 
contact in any way with Tliomas. 

In obedience to the wishes of numerous friends, the speaker 
"wrote to Thomas in April, 1867, asking the general if he would 



I 



\ 



11 

accept a nomination for the Presidency. His letter, dated Louis- 
ville, April 20th, in reply to mine, is so characteristic, that it 
must be interesting to every one, especially as it demonstrates the 
unselfish patriotism of the great soldier, at a time when almost 
all our successful commanders were hoping that their mil tary 
services were about to prove stepping-stones to civil preferment 
and the profuser emoluments of political office. In it the dignity 
of the hero shines forth with its accustomed lustre ; and denied 
the preferment and rank due to his past services — the generalship 
or the lieutenant-generalship — he refused to become the mere 
instrument of party, for the manipulation of politicians, where, 
doubtless, he would experience the fate of the honest hero of 
Buena Vista. If it be true that " consistency is a jewel," then 
the life example of G-eorge H. Thomas is a " koh-i-noor" of pa- 
triotic and dignified light. 

•' I received your favor of the 9th some days ago, but have not 
had time to reply until to-day. 

"First — You must permit me to acknowledge my grateful sense 
of your kind appreciation of my services; and 

" Second — I will here state, and hope you will report for me, 
whenever you hear my name mentioned in connection with the 
Presidency of the United States, that I never will consent to being 
brought before the people as a candidate for any office. I have 
too much self-respect to voluntarily place myself in a position 
where my personal and private character can be assailed with im- 
punity by newspaper men, and scurrilous political pettifoggers and 
demacjoo-ues." 



"Ob 



General Thomas was born 31st July, 1816, on his father's plan- 
tation, in Southampton County, one of the four extreme south- 
eastern counties of Viiginia. He sprang from, and was connected 
with, the oldest and best families of the State. His father, 
John Thomas, was of English, or, more remotely, of Welsh de- 
scent, and his mother, Elizabeth Rochelle, was of an old and 
honorable Huguenot family. This was a curious mingling of 
blood, and if " blood will tell," as the proverb reads, the union of 
these two races, both remarkable for peculiar qualities, developed 
and concentrated their strength in our greatest general. 

Thomas, in his physical aspect, was a perfect example of that 
race which, originally known as the Briton, is now almost entirely 
confined to Wales and the ancient Armorica, present Brittany in 
France. Individuals, almost identical as to physical characteris- 
tics, are to be met with in France, but more particularly in the 
French navy. This was his paternal race. Consequently, accord- 



12 

ing to psycho-physiological laws, Thomas, as he derived his phys- 
ical conformation from his father, must have inherited his mental 
and moral characteristics from his mother, and, in accordance with 
this theory — borne out by the observation of a life-time, as well as 
by ethnological study — his greatness must be credited to his 
maternal origin, the Huguenot. This, almost altogether Gothic 
in its origin, gave a moral, mtntal and masculine force to France, 
of which the French nation, by \vliolesale murder and jjapal per- 
secution, are acknowledged " to have lost the very seed.'' This 
matter of lace nearly concerns us Knickerbockers, who count so 
many families of Huguenot extraction among our honored an- 
cestors. New England, with all its prejudice, cannot deny the ex- 
cellence of this glorious origin. Bancroft concedes that the Hugue- 
nots were the " best" of the French nation. And many of the best 
among these BEST, settled upon the waters of this colony, helped to 
build up this metropolis of the New World, and develope this our 
Empii e State. It is no vain boast nor em[)ty assertion to claim that 
the Huguenot race constituted the leaven or salt of the modern 
world. It has directly or indirectly produced the greatest soldiers 
who have illustrated the last five centuries. The effect of the French 
Protestant emigration has been seriously and gloriously felt, from 
Sweden north to Algiers soiith; from Moscow east to Limerick 
west. To it we credit Coligni, greatest of French citizens; Du- 
quesne, greatest of French admirals; William III., greatest of 
royal reformers; Frederick the Great, greatest of royal generals. 
Ethnological and historical investigators attribute the decadence 
of France to its expulsion; the universal progress of humanity to 
its dispersion; and, as if the blessing of God accompanied its exile, 
wherever papalism drove it, every nation that welcomed and fos- 
tered it, in accordance with the hospitality and opportunities 
afforded it, that nation has advanced in greatness and power with 
the strides of a giant. Moreover, in the case before us, if another 
proverb be true, that no great man issues from any but the womb 
of a great mother, it is but just to concede to the Huguenot 
parent the spring and force of the illustrious career of one who 
most honored the national uniform by the wearing of it. 

The picture which stands before you, gentlemen, is declared by 
Hooker to be the best likeness of Thomas in existence. Neverthe- 
less even this does not do him justice. There is a severity about 
the expression which the speaker never beheld in him. 

In fact, no man was ever more deceptive in his general appear- 
ance than he. His stature has been estimated at over six feet, 



13 

whereas in reality he was under that measure. His breadth of 
shoulder and his depth of chest, his massive frame and limbs did 
not detract, as is usual, from his height; while his erect carriage 
augmented it in his case. On horseback he sat higher than most 
men of his inches, owing to comparative length of body. He 
stood and moved a very tower of strength, and in the saddle, he 
gave the exact idea of one of those mcdiajval knights before whom 
hostile ranks went down like embattled cards. It reauired a very 
powerful horse to carry him and perform its suitable day's work 
under him. As for his head, it was in keeping with his body. To 
those who saw him through an appaicnt veil of sternness, which 
was serenity, his face was handsome; his silver blue ej'es, large 
and steadfast, and ordinarily not very bright, like all those of their 
j)eculiar color, corruscated with light when anything moved him, 
which it was diffiv ult to do, for Thomas was not easily excited. 
Perhaps the clearest idea of the expression of his features might 
be conveyed by comparing it to that of the Egyptian Sphinx, glo- 
rious in its calm and dignity, its sagacity, looking out compre- 
hendingly into the future. If phrenology is correct, his perceptive 
qualities were enormous. His instinctive woodcraft or knowledge 
of the points of the compass, roads and ground were extraordinary. 
His very imperturbable calm gave his face, to ordinary observers, 
a severe expression. Those who could not understand him con- 
sidered Thomas — who was at heart the gentlest of living men — as 
one destitute of sensibility, as one insensible to the emo- 
tions; yes, even "incapable of strong affections, firm friendships 
or noble emotions." Nothing is further from the truth ; 
nothing can be more contrary to the truth. " The ex- 
treme solidity of his nervous system," his self-discipline 
under injustice, made him appear an image of marble, 
when he was in reality a very man, perfect in that blending 
of the masculine and feminine natures which constitute at once 
the imperturbable hero in the extreme crisis of imminent peril, 
and the tenderest husband in the quiet sanctity of home. " I 
have taken a great deal of pains to educate myself not to feel," 
said he. Feel what ? Love, friendship, sympathy ? No ! 
Wrong, injustice, misrepresentation .^ Yes ! He showed feeling 
when Bragg allowed our flag of truce to be violated, and its escort 
to be robbed and maltreated just before Stone Kiver. He did not 
show feeling when younger and lesser men Avtre promoted over 
his head. And yet that heart which could feel and whose feeh'ng 
found utterance in bitter, biting words, at outrages inflicted upon 



14 

poor privates or dumb animals, consumed itself in silence at 
greater wrongs done to himself. All kinds of stray animals, from 
horses down to cats, were instinctively fond of the general, who 
would not allow them to be maltreated. In regard to his sym- 
pathy for liuman suffering, hundreds of instances might be brought 
forward. Colonel Stone, his assistant-adjutant general, recalled 
one as particularly worthy of mention, because it occurred at a 
time when most men would have thought of nothing but their 
own glory. Riding forward on the field of his triumph, Nash- 
ville, in passing through the captured lines, he noticed a little 
group of wounded rebel soldiers without shelter, in the cold rain, 
neglected and forgotten. He stopped, sent back one orderly for 
an ambulance and surgeon ; saw that one of his staff officers ad- 
ministered stimulants from the flasks of the party ; left a second 
orderly to watch over them until assistance arrived ; spoke a few 
strong words of cheer and hope, and passed on in the fulfillment of 
his own high duty. Yes, "this silent thing can talk, I promise 
you," and sometimes warmed up like William III., in the furnace 
of battle, as at Chicamauga. Almost surrounded, holding sixty 
thousand rebels, victorious elsewhere, with about twenty thousand 
Union troops, his outraged instinctive soldiership found expres- 
sion then and there. " The damned scoundrels !" he remarked, 
" are fighting without any system" or method. 

" All fighting without lead and without method, 
A dreary, hopeless, desultory war." 

But to continue and conclude his word portrait. His hair was 
light yellow, with more red in the beard. Perhaps tawny 
through exposure, like the mane of a lion, would describe more 
correctly the color of the latter. Long befoi'e the war ended, both 
hair and beard had become, in a measure, silvered, and this added 
to the remarkable dignity, yes, majesty, the " lion port," which 
impressed itself on all that approached him. As referred to on 
other occasions, his voice, however strong, had nothing of rough- 
ness in it, unless its tones rose accentuated or sank at times into 
a diapason, through the denunciation of a great manifest turpi- 
tude, or direct treason to manhood and to duty. As a rule, his 
voice resembled the steadj'', unrippledflow of a vast deep, smooth, 
irresistible, unbroken river. I have heard it when it was as gentle 
as a woman's, and listeners often deceived themselves as to the 
force of his condemnation of those incompetent commanders who 
wasted irretrievable time, and the lives of our soldiers and the 



15 

treasures of the country, Ijy the calm tones in which the judg- 
ment was uttered. 

One of the strongest characteristics of Thomas was the vahie 
he set upon the lives of his soldiers. It .stung him to the quick 
to see them expended to no purpose. He held that the test of 
generalshij) consisted in the accomplishment of the greatest pos- 
sible results with the smallest possible comparative means and 
loss of men. He was economical of life and suffering. This 
made him resolute in his opposition to attacks which must be 
fruitless in the very nature of things, however great the tempta- 
tion. Thus, according to the statement of a common friend, 
a corps-commander, Thomas stopped twice at his headquartei's 
on the evening before the assault on Kenesaw Mountain, 27th 
of June, 1864, on his return from those of the com- 
mander-in-chief, whither he had gone in the vain endeavor 
to avert an attack which he felt sure could only eventuate in an 
awful and useless sacrifice of life. His advice was disregarded; 
and we lost, according to the commanding general's own admis- 
sion, three thousand men without accomplishing anything. The 
casualties on this occasion are set down, by those who claimed to 
know the truth, at five thousand; and the rebels undertake to 
prove that seven thousand five hundred are more likely to be cor- 
rect, from the desperate gallantry and pertinacity with which the 
attempts were made, and the terrible slaughter with winch 
they were repelled. Joseph E. Johnston's language is so compli- 
mentary to Union valor, that it is impossible to refrain from its 
citation : " From the number of dead counted from his breast- 
works, Lieutenant-Greneral Hardee estimated the loss of the 
troops engaged with his corps at five thousand; and in his official 
report, dated July 30th, Major-General Loring estimated that of 
the Army of Tennessee which assailed his corps, at twenty-five 
hundred. 

"I think that the estimate of Northern ofiicers of their killed 
and wounded on that occasion " near three thousand," does great 
injustice to the character of General Sherman's army. Such 
a loss, in the large force that must liave been furnished for a de- 
cisive and general attack by an army of almost a hundred thousand 
men, would have been utterly insignificant, too trifling to discour- 
age, luuch less defeat, brave soldiers, such as comjjosed General 
Sherman's army. It does injustice to Southern marksmanship, 
too. The fire of twenty thousand infantry inured to battle, and 
intrenched, and of fifty field pieces poured into such columns, fre- 



16 

quently within pistol-shot, must have done much greater execu- 
tion. 

Thomas was imbued with the sentiment of the celebrated Greek 
general, Phanes, that " more courage is required to shed blood 
than to plant trees;" and he believed with Leonato, that " a vic- 
tory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers." 

Even Hannibal (falsely reputed cruel j, viewing the battle-field 
of CannfB covered with the bodies of thirty to seventy thousand 
Romans, aod only six thousand of his own troops, perceiving that 
many of the bravest of those he loved lay low among the slain, 
cried out : " He could not afford another such a victory." 

Finally, to describe his smile or its effect is almost impossible. 
However unlikely it may appear, to the speaker it made his face 
almost all that St. Luke ascribed to St. Stephen, "looking stead- 
fastly on him" one "saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." 

" Rosecrans," said the speaker one day to the victor of Stone 
River, " Rosy, Thomas was an angel — was he not ?" " Well," 
replied the matter-of-fact man who maneuvered Bragg out of 
Tennessee, " is that not going too far ? I cannot exactly say that." 
" Oh, but I mean as near to an angel as a mortal can be." '' Yes, 
I willingly agree to that." 

Thus he grew upon the affections of the American people, " the 
soldier's father." Ignored by the administration — for if it had 
acknowledged the worth of Thomas, why did they not reward it ? 
— Stone River and Chickamauga revealed the greatness over 
which envy and misconception had thrown so thick a veil. The 
generosity of Rosecrans first did justice to Thomas. After Stone 
River he styled him, " True and prudent, distinguished in council, 
and on many battle fields celebrated by his courage;" and after 
Chickamauga, " To Major General Thomas, the true soldier and 
incorruptible patriot, the thanks of the country are due for his 
conduct "in this terrible battle. 

And it was to the truth of Thomas that Rosecrans owes that 
his enemies did not succeed in consummating their intended in- 
justice. " Thomas is a white man,'' said Rosecrans, and he was 
a white man — white as the robe of Truth itself, unsusceptible of 
receiving cr retaining a stain. 

Of all the men, at home or abroad, considered great or really 
so — however high in intellectual, political, military, or social rank 
— whom the speaker has met, or with whom he has associated, 
there is none who so impressed him as Thomas, none who in port 
and presence, parts and power, so completely realized the concep- 



17 

tion of one of the demigods of good old Germau patriotic story. 

The language which one of our native metropolitan poets has 
placed in the mouth of the " divine " Titus applies as appropri- 
ately to Thomas as if it had been written of him : 

"I know all his story. 
From liini gushed ont the nobloHt blood ol' Rome, 
And sped the uoblest spirit. Pure in honor, 
Dishonor was to him a foreign thing, 
Of which he heard, but could conceive it not, 
Till seen. He was a treasure-house of justice ; 
A casket where the gods kept manliness." 

Major-General Thomas entered West Point at the age of twenty, 
in 1836, and was graduated Jst July, 1840, number twelve in his 
class of forty-two. Number six was the present general and com- 
mander-in-chief of the army. Another class-mate, number thir- 
teen, was Lieutenant-General Ewell, who ranked so high in the 
Confederate service; yet, notwithstanding, died with a request that 
nothing derogatory to the Union might be placed on his monu- 
ment. For the next twenty years Thomas ran the usual career of 
young officers in the United States service. He served with dis- 
tinction against the Seminole Indians in Florida, in the Mexican 
war, and down to 1860 against the Western Indians. He was 
wounded near the Clear Fork of the Brazos River in 1860. This 
is the only casualty he appears to have met with in his many 
arduous and glorious campaigns, although he was constantly 
brevetted "for gallantry" and for "good and meritorious" conduct. 

Thomas had finer opportunities to learn by experience than 
most officers enjoy. With exemplary devotion he passed " through 
every grade known to our laws, in the course of his thirty year.«; 
service." During the long period he held commands in all the 
three arms of Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry; and to use the 
words of an associate, not given to praise without criticism, he 
" became master of them all." 

At the breaking out of the late civil war he was Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the 2d U. S. Cavalry, and Colonel, 3d May, 1861. 
August 17th, 1861, he was made Brigadier-General of Volunteers 
in the " Department of the Cumberland," and November 30th, 
1861, he was placed in command of a division of the " Army of 
the Ohio." It was while occupying this position that he won a 
victory, 19th and 20th January, 1862, which may be said to have 
been the first clear dawn of hope at the West. There had been, 
it is true, a few faint indications of the coming light, but this was 



18 

the uprising of an Austerlitz sun from behind the mountains of 
gloom which was to diffuse a Friedland brilliancy upon a day of 
victories, and like the orb of Waterloo, to shed its parting rays on 
the crowning triumph of Thomas at Nashville, which was the 
" Nehavend " of our war — the Northern " victory of victories." 

Nashville realized the langnage of " pure gold " Humphreys, 
" noblest of living men," in regard to Gettysburg. 

" Of all the sublime sights within the view and comprehension 
of man, the greatest and most sublime is a great battle. Its 
sights and sounds arouse a feeling of exaltation, compared to 
which, tame indeed is the sense of the sublime excited by all 
other great works, either of God or man. N-n grander sight was 
seen throughout the war than this great battle between two 
brave, well-disciplined and ably-commanded armies." 

By the way, Thomas was almost without an imitator, if not 
absolutely alone in his mode of living in the army. Elegance, 
simplicity, and solid comfort, characterized everything about him. 
His chief attendant — a respectable contraband — absolutely idol- 
ized his master, as he had good reason to do, for Thomas had 
ordered one of his officers, Wilder, I believe, in command of a 
cavalry raid, to rescue old Phil's wife and family from worse than 
Egyptian bondage in Alabama. This was successfully accom- 
j)lished, and the faithful negro had the satisfaction of knowing, 
that while he was repaying his benefactor with vigilant fidelity, 
those dear to him were in safety on the soil of freedom. His other 
servants never changed ; appeared to have become imbued with 
the decorous deportment and undeviating habits of their master. 
Nay, his very horses seemed to resemble each other, and were noble, 
powerful and sedate animals, becoming their rider. Shanks, in 
his " Personal Recollections," enters into quite a detailed descrip- 
tion of the habits of Thomas, but falls into some errors, led astray 
by enthusiasm, even as others have been. There was no silver 
belonging to the General's mess service ; no luxury, but exquis- 
ite, appetizing neatness. 

Speaking of breakfast, Shanks says : " Daylight and breakfast 
were announced simultaneously by an elderly, dignified and 
cleanly-attired colored servant. * * * "The breakfast 
table was spread" in fine weather in the open air, "in foul, under 
the fly-leaf of the tent, which served as a kitchen, and on it 
smoked fresh beef, ham, and strong, black cofiee. At each plate 
was a napkin of the purest white, artistically folded in the latest 
style of the first-class hotels, a water goblet, a china cup, and the 



19 

usual knives and silver forks. Better beef and coffee could not 
have been found in the country in wliich the army was cam- 
paigning, while the hot rolls and potatoes, baked in tlie hot ashes 
of a neighboring fire, would have made many a French cook 
blush." 

Ten comfortable tents constituted the complement of the general 
and staff. A large hospital tent served as an adjutant-general's 
office, and he had the most complete headquarters' wagon for that 
officer and his assistants to be found in the whole military service 
of our country. Indeed, there was only one other like it, that of 
Seth Williams, in the Army of the Potomac. The idea is said to 
have originated with Williams, but it was greatly improved and 
modified by Thomas. 

Whenever he camped, his own tent stood at the head of a little 
street formed by those of his staft" officers, five on each side. To 
the right of his own tent was that of his adjutant-general, to the 
left that of his chief of artillery. 

" When beginning the campaign of Atlanta, Sherman en- 
deavored to effect an important innovation in the habits of his 
army, by carrying out to the very letter his instructions to ' move 
light,' i.e., without extra baggage. In order to impress upon his 
officers the necessity of setting a good example to the men, he 
published an order, in which he stated that the ' general com- 
manding intended making the campaign without tent or baggage.' 
The hint was lost on Thomas, who moved in his usual style, with 
a complete headquarter train and the usual number of tents. 

" The campaign began, and Sherman made several days' 
march without his tent, sleeping anywhere that night overtook 
him; but before reaching Resaca, he was very glad to take up his 
abode near Thomas' headquarters, and make use of his tents and 
adjutant-general's office." 

It was the speaker's intention to have given a summary ®f the 
military services of Thomas, and enter into the details of his prin- 
cipal fights, of which many were learned from the general himself, 
and have never been made known to the jjublic. This, liowever, 
will be impossible, from the lateness of the hour, and the little 
monitor (watch) at my side admonishes me to be brief. It is im- 
possible, however, to pass over that combined operation, as Sher- 
man understood it, which embraced his "picnic" from Atlanta 
to Savannah, and the hardest figiiting, the roughest marching, 
and the severest suffering, four hundred miles distant in Central 
Tennessee. , 



20 

The audience will please bear in minJ that in the preceding 
campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Thomas commanded 
more than three-fifths of the combined armies which drove back, 
8tep by step, for over one hundred miles, the best general of the 
Confederacy, and won the grand objective of so much marching, 
fighting and suffering. He it was who delivered the opening battle 
at Buzzard's Roost; bore the brunt of the fighting all the way 
through, with the exception of the repulse of the rebels near Deca- 
tur, a collision in which McPherson fell, and foudit the closine: 
battle at Lovejoy's. 

While Sherman was cutting his way through Georgia — to use 
the words of the famous Spanish general, the Duke of Alva — 
like " a hot knife through a roll of butter," Thomas was required 
to i)erform the miracle demanded by the sybil to " cleave a whet- 
stone with a razor." To him was entrusted the mighty task of 
defending the middle zone against the hardest hitter of the Con- 
federacy; to orgJinize an army in the face of an invading host of 
veterans; to defend a key-point or key-hole against a powerful 
key whose wards were the best fighting generals of the Confed- 
eracy. And he did it. Yes, while Sherman was booming along 
on his " gala march " to pick up by the way, as a Christmas gift, 
Savannah, its guns and its cotton, Schofield at Franklin and 
Thomas at Nashville were wresting from the fangs of destruction 
successes which decided the fate of our Nation. Eternal Justice! 
To compare this military promenade through Georgia with that 
death grapple on the banks of the Cumberland! And yet, such 
is the judgment of men! This proves what their judgment is 
worth! It has been so in all ages with the unthinking majority 
led bv the dexterous few whose constant practice has been to hide 
what they could not depreciate, and to depreciate what they could 
not hide. Sherman's operation was the flesh wound of a dexter- 
ous rapier — that of Thomas the death blow of an iron mace! 

The lamented General Halpine, the soldier-poet, better known 
as Miles O'Rielly, depicted the naked charms of Sherman's march 
in some dozen lively verses, which gallop along like a rollicking 
song, or ring like the blasts of a bugle. Listen to a few of its 
couplets, selected for their sparkling revelations of the truth : 

" A pillar of fire by nigbt, 

A column of smoke by day. 

* * # * 

Tliere is terror •wberever we come, 
Tbere is terror and wild dismay. 



21 

When they see the old flag and hear the drum 

Beating time to our onward way, 

» « » » 

By heavens ! 'tis a gala march, 

'Tis a pic-nic or a play ; 

* ^ * * 

Draw sabres and soon you will see them run, 
As we hold our coiKjueriuf/ way ; 

Tbere is just enough fighting to quit-ken onr heart, 
As we gallop along the way." 

This march to the sea was very much what the French term a 
"military promenade" — sitch as the "Passage of the Algirian 
Gates ol Iron (El Biban)," in 1839, by the Duke of Orleans — a 
orand title for an operation raagniloquently told, however, easy 
of accomplishment. Just as nothing resulted from this prome- 
nade, on a smaller scale, except an inscription — three words — 
engraved by the French sappers upon the Plutonic rocks, and the 
possession of a small fort which should have guarded the pass ; 
just so the '-'march to the sea" would have left little or no traces, 
except ruins and ashes, had there not been a Thomas to hold, 
throttle, and dispose of the only army which could have converted 
its rejoicing into the groans of the battle-field, or the wails of the 
prison pen. 

The Army and Navy Journal, at the time of these occurrences, 
remarks that General Sherman "undertook the double task of 
defeating Hood and capturing Savannah." With an irresistible 
force as perfect as any military array could be, he swept away to 
the East on a front of forty miles, and left to old "Captain Slow 
and Sure," to gather u]^ an army, and defend what after all, at 
this juncture was the vital point. Having quiet possession of Sa- 
vannah, and received news of the demolition of Hood, Sherman 
issued a congratulatory order, showing that he considered his 
movement through Georgia as equal in importance with the fight- 
ing of Thomas before the capital of Tennessee, whereas there was 
no equality whatever in the dangers and difficulties overcome. 
This order gave great dissatisftxction to Thomas because it assim- 
ilated two results totally opposite in character and importance, 
and assigned to both the glory which belonged entirely to one. 
The particular paragraph which stirred even the habitual calm of 
Thomas reads as follows : 

" The armies serving in Georgia and Tennessee, as well as the 
local garrisons of Decatur, Bridgeport, Chattanooga and Murfrees- 
borough, are alike entitled to the common honor, and each regi- 



22 

ment may inscribe on its colors, at pleasure, the words "Savan- 
nah," or " Nashville." 

Pardon me, gentlemen, if 1 give a few minutes to the examin- 
ation of this matter. 

In the first place, the severity or peril of a military action or 
operation certainly has its best attest in the list of its dead and its 
maimed. Colonel Fletcher, the English liistorian of the Ameri- 
can War, remarks that "the casualties in the (that is, Sherman's) 
army had been very few ; 567 in killed, wounded and missing, 
making up the total loss." Conceding this to be altogether too 
low an estimate, the total is nowhere set down as over 1000 to 
1500. On the other hand, Thomas, in his report, says : "our loss 
will not exceed ten thousand in killed, wounded and missino- " 
What a vast disparity ! and there was even a greater disparity 
in the suffering. The winter climate of Tennessee is very severe, 
while consumptives are sent to Georgia for recuperation at the 
same season. 

"The Confederacy lived ifi its armies, which continuing, its 
territory might be traversed and laid waste in rain; but from 
the ruin of these armies there was no recuperation, since the fight- 
ing stock of the Confederacy was already exhausted." Gen. 
Grant had long since declared that the strength of the rebellion 
lay altogether in its armies in the field. Every officer of distinc- 
tion at the north corroborated this opinion. "Thomas solved one 
branch of the problem, and eliminated one army from the military 
equation." There was no longer any armed opposition in his 
front ; whereas, conceding the immense amount of damage done 
to the enemy by Sherman, this destruction fell upon non-combat- 
ants, and he soon found himself confronted by another army which 
enlisted his lively interest, delivered several hard blows and was 
still in existence when Lee's surrender involved that of Johnston. 
This is intended as no attack upon- Sherman, or the gallant 
men who occupied Savannah, and compelled the evacuation of 
Charleston. But it is no more than justice to Thomas to insti- 
tute a comparison which served to deihonstrate that he was the 
greatest among the great captains to whom we owe the present 
existence of our institutions and the integrity of our country. 

Well might the historian of the war, endorsed by West Point, 
declare: " This 'holiday march' nevertheless, had been a frightful 
blunder, if Hood had triumphed in Tennessee." 

" As for the ' March to the Sea,' — (the remark of Thomas to 
the speaker himself) — there was nothing to stop Sherman from go- 



23 

ing where he chose. I said to him : ' let me take the Army of 
the Cumberland, and I will go wherever yon indicate, to Mobile, 
to Savannah; nothing could have prevented me; but he chose to 
send me back to Nashville and I obeyed, as I always did.' " 

No human being at this time can place a sufficiently high esti- 
mate on the hopes and expectations which accompanied Hood in 
his march northward against Thomas. " Be of good cheer," said 
Jefferson Davis to Hood's army, " for within a short time your 
faces will be turned homeward, and your feet pressing Tennessee 
soil." How terribly was this prophecy fulfilled, but not in the 
sense of the utterance ! Upon how many thousands of these de- 
luded men pressed heavily the Tennessee soil before a few weeks 
had elapsed ! 

Thomas struck Hood as no Union general had struck an op- 
ponent during the war; and to borrow the language of the immor- 
tal Schiller in regard to the Spanish catastrophe of 1588: 

" God the Almighty blew 
And the Anuada went to every wind ! " 

Like Philip's " invincible Armada," Bragg's armament came, 
went, and WAS. 

What an appropriate word this simple was ! It expresses in 
one syllable the fact that the army which Jeiferson Davis had 
prophecied was to restore the fortunes of the rebellion, had hence- 
forth to be considered as among the things which WERE. 

Without exaggeration it might be said of Hood's army, as the 
French Convention decreed of the City of Lyons : " Lyons made 
war on the Eepublic and Lyons is NOT." 

Pouring back towards the Tennessee, as the army of Napoleon 
streamed back from Leipzig toward the Rhine in 1813, or like the 
sauve-qui-pent from his even more fatal field of Waterloo, to- 
ward the Seine in 1815, what escaped the sword and the fite and 
the pursuit of Thomas dissolved and disappeared as rotten ice 
under a spring sun, that loses its cohesive power and returns to 
original tenuity. 

But I perceive that Cowper spoke the truth when he declared : 

" Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, 
llnsoil'd and swift, and of a silken sound," 

and thus, unwittingly, my Address has overrun the .space or 
period accorded to it. 



24 

A few words, Grentlemen, and I will not test your patience 
farther. 

A parallel has been instituted between Thomas and Epaminond- 
as, " the greatest of the Greeks." This parallel holds good in 
every particular from first to last. Both worked themselves up 
from the lowest ranks to the highest commands; both suffered 
injustice, and both answered each renewed wrong with the salva- 
tion of an army or a victory; both made their Republics great 
and influential, and both died without other children than their 
victories and achievements. When the friends of the expiring 
Greek deplored his childless condition, the light of prophecy illu- 
mined the face of the dying hero, and he dtclared that he left 
behind him two immortal daughters whose wombs were fruitful 
with teaching for every succeeding age. Mighty truth ! Chil- 
dren in the flesh would have mouldered into dust over 2000 years 
ago. Leuctra and Mantinoea still live as prodigies of generalship 
in all the attractions of surviving eternal youth. To this day they 
survive as two of the most purely scientific battles ever won, and 
won by superior tactics only. Even so will the victories of Thomas 
— particularly Mill Spring, Chickamauga and Nashville — live on 
for ever, imperishable as the mountains which witnessed his deeds, 
irresistible as the rivers which washed the fields of his glory. 

" Weep not for me, my friends ! " said Epaminondas, as he 
yielded up his mighty spirit. " Weep not for me ! this day your 
general is born " — born to an immortality of fame. Thus died 
the greatest of the Grand Greeks; and thus the greatest of the 
Americans dying was reborn into that immortality which is hal- 
lowed with the confidence and appreciation, faith -and love of his 
countrymen, who will deplore his loss more and more with every 
succeeding year. 

That mail hatli reached the goal and won the prize, 

Who lives with honor, and who calnilj- dies 
With name unstained, in fond remembrance kept, 

By friends, by kindred — and by country wept : 
Blending, when life is but a faded spell. 

An angel's welcome with the world's farewelll 





















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